Touhou Before EoSD

For as much of a gargantuan fan of the Touhou series as I am, it might come as a surprise that I still have not played any of the PC-98 games. Despite putting a lot of effort into getting the Windows games to run on my Mac, I never even tried to see if I could get a PC-98 emulator working. Though as it turns out, it's not actually that hard if I use Retroarch. So now, I have all five PC-98 Touhou games downloaded and I'm very excited to check them out. Let's see how ZUN grew into his own, and if any of these earlier entries are still worth playing today.

Highly Responsive To Prayers: Highly Responsive To Prayers is ZUN's first game and it was a study project that he only sold alongside its sequel. It's often regarded as the black sheep of the franchise due to being not a bullet hell but an arkanoid game, albeit with bullet hell elements. You play as Reimu and try to knock a yin-yang orb into a bunch of cards to progress to the stage, all the while dodging bullets and not getting squashed by the orb. The act of moving around and hitting the orb is actually really fun, as you get a decent amount of options like a simple gohei whack, tossing cards at it from afar, and a sideways dash move. You can even choose to not hit the ball and let it continue on its trajectory, though it'll eventually lose height and roll into you. There is a genuine amount of depth here which I appreciate seeing in such an early game from ZUN, and the aesthetic is top-notch. While HRtP certainly looks pretty messy and crunchy, I always adored the surrealist backgrounds and atmosphere, only amplified by its stellar soundtrack. However, there is a problem... I don't like arkanoids much.

Aside from Kirby's Block Ball, I have the same issue with arkanoid that everyone else has. When you get down to your last one or two bricks, actually being precise and hitting them feels like total RNG. Despite the added movement options, this issue feels magnified in HRtP since you now have projectiles to dodge while also trying to manage the ball, so the more time wasted, the more likely it is you'll get yourself hit. This issue is at its absolute worst during the boss fights, who often move or teleport around the room while attacking you at a relentless pace, so even getting a hit in feels like a struggle. Bullet hell bosses tend to be fairly easy to hit allowing the player to focus on survival, but that definitely doesn't apply here. I also despise the bombs in this game, not only because they're so easy to accidentally trigger, but because they flashbang you with some aggressive flickering, easily some of the worst I've seen in a game.

Overall, HRtP is a really weird game. For an arkanoid, I do think the gameplay loop is really inventive and the presentation is striking given the limitations. I can acknowledge that for what it is, this is a creative and fun take on the genre, but it's obviously unrefined and very much not my thing.

3/5 Stars

Story Of Eastern Wonderland: Story Of Eastern Wonderland is the first proper shmup of the series, and as you'd expect, it does have a solid amount of obvious limitations compared to its sequels. However, it does establish the groundwork quite well. Movement feels fairly tight, the power system is already here pretty much fully formed, and the simple Z/X control scheme is as easy to pick up as ever. There's now a proper story with dialogue and while it's not anything groundbreaking, the banter between Reimu and Genji is endearing, and Mima is a surprisingly charismatic antagonist. I can see why fans want her back now. The visuals are already a huge step up from the previous game with some pretty sick-looking backgrounds, especially the 3D effects in the Mima fight, and the soundtrack is as great as ever. There's even a proper menu now with all the expected features like a difficulty select, high score board, music room, and extra stage.

However, while SoEW is a huge improvement on a surface level, it has its issues in terms of game design. I won't fault the game for not having a focus button considering it's just the first one, but my real beef is with its pacing. Despite only having five stages, SoEW absolutely draaaaaaaaaags. The stages play out more like traditional shmups with the focus being on taking out repetitive swarms of enemies rather than dodging intersecting bullet patterns, and it's just so dull. The stages go on for what feels like ages with little deviation. As for the bosses, most of them are actually pretty fun... in theory. The problem is they also love to waste your time. The Five Magic Stones are a fun fight, until the last one turns itself invincible for like a minute. Marisa has some neat attacks, but she spends like 80% of the fight hiding behind shields you have to take out to get to her. And Mima's just long, like way too long, she took me like 10 minutes to beat. Of course, if you've played SoEW, you'd know that you actually have to mash the shoot button to take down bosses quickly, but it's not like I knew that because the game never told me!

Story Of Eastern Wonderland is a functionally fine shmup, and it obviously deserves a lot of praise for laying the groundwork for the Touhou series as we know it, but man does it have a lot of rough edges. I may not have loved what HRtP was going for, but at least I can say it did what it was trying to do. I prefer playing SoEW because I'd take a mediocre shmup over a decent arkanoid, but it's definitely the weakest mainline Touhou game.

3/5 Stars

Phantasmagoria Of Dim Dream: Ah, finally, we've gotten to the good stuff. Phantasmagoria Of Dim Dream is the first of the currently three VS Touhou games, all of which are very much inspired by the competitive bullet hell arcade game, Twinkle Star Sprites. Outside of the lack of focusing, Dim Dream actually plays quite a lot like its sequels, introducing the same spell attack system that they would also use. The one big difference, of course, is that Dim Dream is way faster and more aggressive, and I love that about it. The bullets fly so fast and furiously, and elongated battles can often devolve into a frenetic back-and-forth of increasingly powerful boss attacks. Of course, this also makes Dim Dream very difficult, it might even be the hardest game in the series, but it's hard to get too frustrated when I'm having this much fun.

It also helps that Dim Dream makes a huge jump in terms of presentation. The pixel art is a lot crisper and ZUN shows his increased mastery of the PC-98 hardware by taking the cool 3D effect I mentioned in SoEW and putting it right into the character select. Speaking of the characters, I also love Dim Dream's roster, there's not a single character who I think is uninteresting. Mima, Kotohime, Rikako, Chiyari, Yumemi, Kana, Ellen, all awesome Touhous with cool stories, sick designs, and fantastic theme songs. I honestly don't have many gripes here, Dim Dream is just a genuinely good shmup that feels way more polished than the previous two. It's easily the best PC-98 game so far and spoiler alert, one of my favorite PC-98 games in general.

The only question is, is it better than Flower View? Well, I'm honestly a bit split. On one hand, I love how aggressive and fast-paced Dim Dream is compared to its predecessor, along with it being the only VS entry with a mostly original cast. On the other hand, this game can feel pretty cheap and the lack of a focus button makes dodging the denser patterns harder than it could've been. If you had a game with the speed of DD and the player movement of FV, that would be the easy winner, but as for now, I'd say these two are at a solid tie (with 19 at a distant third).

4/5 Stars

Lotus Land Story: Lotus Land Story makes a lot of strides compared to SoEW, adding in so many important Touhou mechanics. You can now focus, thank goodness, and enemies now have a healthbar on the right side of the screen. Spell cards won't be properly introduced until 6, but boss attacks will now be disrupted in a similar manner if you take out enough of their health. I shouldn't have to say that the visuals and music are once again even better than before, and there's even a decent amount of extra content like two extra bosses and slight differences depending on if you play as Marisa or Reimu. Though I'd say the biggest improvement LLS brings to the table is in the stage and boss design. The stages are much faster paced with denser and more varied enemy patterns, and the bosses still have unique mechanics that don't feel like they're wasting your time. I was so scared when Marisa brought back her shield from SoEW only to sigh in relief after realizing you can still hit her through it and it goes down a lot faster.

However, I also think Lotus Land Story still shares a decent amount of quirks with the other PC-98 games so far, some good and some bad. I noticed that these entries seem to give out Extends much more often which is pretty cool, but on the other hand, the bullet patterns still come at you really fast with little time to react and process them. In general, I can definitely see a lot of the quirks that I disliked in EoSD in this game, particularly how random some of the patterns can feel. But the worst thing about Lotus Land Story, and the one element that really stopped me from loving it is the fact that it blocks you from playing Stage 6 if you use a continue. From what I can tell, this is the only game in the series to do this and it really sucks.

However, despite my gripes, Lotus Land Story is still pretty good. It makes some really important additions to the franchise and shows ZUN further refining his craft. That being said, it does kind of suffer from being sandwiched between my two favorite PC-98 games.

3.5/5 Stars

Mystic Square: Mystic Square was the entry I was most excited to play considering how much I love it's soundtrack, and I'm pleased to say it generally lived up to my expectations. While not quite as groundbreaking as SoEW or LSS, Mystic Square is both a great refinement of the Touhou formula and a fitting conclusion for the PC-98 era. I've always praised the game's OST for having a strong sense of finality to it, and playing the game only amplifies that feeling. I've raved about the story before and how it blends a seemingly simple premise with some interesting dramatic ambiguity, and the playable character roster is stellar. In addition to the usual Reimu and Marisa, you can play as the final bosses of the two prior bullet hell games, Yuuka and Mima. Mima is an absolute beast too, with her high speed and power, and her dialogue with the bosses further solidifies her as a really fun character. I love how much gleeful chaos Mima causes in her story, constantly lying just for the hell of it, all with the same trademark confidence.

As for the game itself, I think the most noteworthy change is with the bullet patterns. Touhou's bullet patterns in the Windows games tend to be very slow and dense, and even the faster ones either telegraph themselves or slow down as they approach the bottom of the screen. In contrast, the bullet patterns in SoEW and LLS are usually really fast and keep a consistent speed, but Mystic Square feels like the first entry to actually adopt the more deliberate pacing that the later entries would be known for. This probably makes MS the easiest of the PC-98 games, but it's also the most fair, especially since using a continue doesn't bar you from the final boss. Speaking of which, the boss fights are all really strong, each creating difficulty and complexity by tossing multiple intersecting bullet patterns at you. My only big gripe with MS is of course the infamous Stage 4 which has you fend against blue bullets against a blue background. Thankfully, I got through unscathed but that doesn't make it not bad design and it doesn't mean that certain players won't have serious trouble with it.

But yeah, overall, Mystic Square is great. It's easily the most fair and refined in its design, boasting strong boss fights, an interesting story, a large playable roster, and a truly incredible soundtrack. When my only issue with it is a single bad stage, that says a lot about how it stacks up compared to the other PC-98 games.

4/5 Stars

Overall, the PC-98 games were fun. While I wouldn't really call any of them one of my favorites in the series, I'm pleasantly surprised by how 3/5 of them are still quite fun. Playing these games in order really makes it apparent how ZUN evolved his craft and why the Windows Touhou games are the way they are, and it also helps you realize how much of a step forward Embodiment Of Scarlet Devil was even with all its jank. I'd definitely recommend playing all five of the PC-98 games if you're interested in the history of Touhou as a series, with 3-5 in particular still holding up to this day.

And in case you're wondering how I'd rank them among the rest of the games, here's my current Touhou tier list. Anything C and above is a game I like, so don't get too mad if one of your favorites isn't especially high up: